Microsoft Planning $150M Fall TV Campaign

Microsoft Corp. reportedly plans to spend $150 million on a television ad campaign this fall to boost its image and highlight many of its products.

The company consolidated its $230 million domestic ad account at McCann-Erickson/A&L, San Francisco, earlier this year. Its corporate image account had been at Wieden & Kennedy in Portland, OR. Wieden created the “Where do you want to go today?” tagline.

Bob Herbold, chief operating officer of Microsoft, said at the company’s annual financial analysts meeting that the campaign would represent a sharp increase compared to last year’s $100 million in spending on television advertising, Reuters reported.

The news service quoted another executive as saying the campaign would be thecompany’s biggest television push ever.

Herbold was quoted as saying that details have not been firmed up, but the aim would be to present a “unified message” promoting the corporate image and its business units.

Herbold said that despite the company’s lengthy government antitrust trial in Washington the company’s image has not suffered in opinion polls.